A local self-defense trainer used female empowerment model at Friday's workshop hosted by the OU Women's Center.
Keeping a whistle ready, carrying pepper spray and never walking home alone are just a few of the things women can do to protect themselves in the Athens area.
But local self-defense trainer Cheryl Cesta offered an alternative weapon to a group of 23 women comprised of both Ohio University and Hocking College students.
“Your body is your best weapon and you always have that with you,” Cesta said.
At Friday’s personal safety and self-defense workshop at the OU Women’s Center, Cesta took the group through lessons focused on female empowerment and sexual assault education, awareness and prevention.
A fourth-degree black belt in Bando, a Burmese martial art, Cesta has been teaching self-defense for 30 years.
“I took a 10-week class as a student,” she said. “Then a blind woman signed up for the class and (the instructor) needed a one-on-one assistant. I worked with her for 10 weeks and that really hooked me into teaching.”
Miranda Arnold, a freshman from Hocking College studying social services, corrections and criminal justice, attended the workshop to educate herself.
“I don’t exercise outside or run because I fear,” Arnold said. “So I wanted to learn something. That way I can feel confident in myself and I don’t have to limit myself due to the fact that I’m a woman.”
Anastasiia Kryzhanivska, an OU graduate student studying linguistics, said she decided to attend the workshop after some men who appeared to be drunk verbally harassed her while she was walking home.
“We were just going home, and they started saying, ‘Hi girls. How are you? What are your names?’ ” she said. “And we just kept going. ‘Why don’t you talk to us? Are you too proud?’ ”
Kryzhanivska said nothing bad happened and she and her friends were all safe.
“But for a second, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what if they really did something?’ ” Kryhanivska said. “So yeah, it was not the best. So when I saw this advertisement, I thought ‘Oh, I better go.’ ”
Another student from Hocking College, Taylor Fisk, a freshman studying social services, corrections and criminal justice, said she feels unsafe on campus.
“I always walk with a friend at night,” Fisk said.
Cesta talked in the class about how while she's had a career as a self-defense trainer, sexual assault has only become more prevalent.
OU does not have a regularly occurring self-defense course, Cesta said. Cesta's workshop was a one-time event, but she would love to teach more.
“Prevention money has kind of fizzled away," she said. “Until we live in a perfect world where sexual assault doesn’t exist, these workshops are very important.”
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